Group Process in a Women's Career Intervention

This study explored women's experiences of group process in a career planning intervention, and the relationship of those experiences to vocational maturity. We used goal instability as the dependent variable to describe the psychological states and needs of career-undecided women (n = 99), and we used Yalom's model of group process to identify group process factors and their influence on levels of goal instability at posttest and follow-up interviews 2 months later. Results indicated that women clients, similar to other counseling clients, highly valued both cognitive and affective components of group process in career counseling groups.     

Storying the suicide of one's child

Using selected concepts from Judith Herman's trauma model, psychoanalytic theory, and narrative theory, the clinical work with a griefstricken couple attempting to understand the suicide of their 26-year-old son, is presented. Within a short-term therapy, the goals were the deconstruction of a guilt-saturated narrative about the trauma, and the construction of an alternative narrative.     

Childhood sexual abuse patterns, psychosocial correlates, and treatment outcomes among adults in drug abuse treatment

This study reports on the effects of having a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) on treatment outcomes among substance abusing men and women (N = 2,434) in a national, multisite study of drug treatment outcomes. A history of CSA was reported by 27.2% of the women and 9.2% of the men. Controlling for gender, compared to patients without CSA, patients reporting CSA were younger at entry into the current drug treatment, were more likely to be White, were more likely to have a comorbid mental disorder, be alcohol or cocaine dependent, had higher levels of criminal activities, had a higher level of problem recognition, and had a more negative peer influence. Controlling for these correlates, a history of abuse was related to a lower likelihood of posttreatment abstinence.     

The Selection of Partial or Full Retirement by Older Workers

The study investigated whether older workers chose partial or full retirement instead of full-time work. Partial or full retirement status was modeled as a combination of self-reported retirement status and change in number of hours worked. The results of multinomial logistic regression using data from the first and fifth waves of the Health and Retirement Study collected in 1992 and 2000 showed that age and gender had similar effects on the likelihood of partial and full retirement. Full retirement was also influenced by investment assets, pensions, employee health insurance, and poor health. The likelihood of partial retirement was also influenced by self-employment, chronic health conditions, and education. Workers who seek partial retirement need working conditions that allow them to make this choice.     

Screening for depression and suicide: self-report instruments that work

Self-report instruments for depression and suicide risk can help busy clinicians identify adult clients who may be at risk for depressive disorders. These instruments provide a baseline measure of clients' behavioral status, reflect response to treatment, and improve clinical decision making. Such scales can also detect symptoms of depression regardless of whether they are reported or observed. Clinicians' recognition of depression is improved when self-report screening tools are used. When it is not feasible to conduct a thorough psychiatric evaluation, screening instruments can identify at-risk clients who need further evaluation.     

Getting by in the community: lessons from frail elders

This study explores how functionally impaired, elderly persons are able to remain in the community without home- and community- based care (HCBC) under the Medicaid program. Using HCBC administrative data, Medicare data, and survey data, we find the nonparticipants in the community appear to get by through a combination of reliance on informal care, use of Medicare home care, and going without needed services. Despite their efforts to manage their care in the community, non-participants were significantly more likely than the participants to enter a nursing home during the six months following assessment. While our analysis does not allow us to attribute the higher nursing home entry to the absence of HCBC services with certainty, the finding does raise questions about whether the elements of the HCBC program that discourage participation may save Medicaid dollars in the short-run at the expense of future Medicaid costs from more rapid nursing home entry.     

Estimates Of U.S. Multiple Cause Life Tables

Cause elimination life tables estimated from multiple cause of death data for four race/sex groups are presented for the U.S. population in 1969. These “multiple cause” life tables are then compared to cause elimination life tables where the mortality risk eliminated is that of the cause of death only in its occurrence as the underlying cause of death. An evaluation is made of the possible effects of the multiple cause data on our perception of the relative importance of the major causes of death. The reconceptualization of mortality risks made possible by the multiple cause of death data is also assessed in terms of its providing further insight into the “Taeuber paradox.”     

A meta-analysis of infants’ word-form recognition

Recognizing word forms is an important step on infants’ way toward mastering their native language. The present study takes a meta-analytic approach to assess overarching questions on the literature of early word-form recognition. Specifically, we investigated the extent to which there is cross-linguistic evidence for an early recognition lexicon, and how it may be influenced by infant age, language background, and familiarity of the selected stimuli (approximated by parent-reported word knowledge). Our meta-analysis—with open data access on metalab.stanford.edu—was based on 32 experiments in 16 different published or unpublished studies on infants 5–15 months of age. We found an overall significant effect of word-form familiarity on infants’ responses. This effect increased with age and was higher for infants learning Romance languages than other languages. We further found that younger, but not older, infants showed higher effect sizes for more familiar word lists. These insights should help researchers plan future studies on word-form recognition.